Mar 28, 2024  
2021-2022 Catalog and Handbook 
    
2021-2022 Catalog and Handbook [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Master of Arts in Applied Theatre


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Academic Director: Christopher Vine
CUNY School of Professional Studies
101 West 31st Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Email Contact: appliedtheatre@sps.cuny.edu​ 

Mission

The mission of the Program is to produce scholar-practitioners as future leaders in the field of applied theatre.

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the MA in Applied Theatre will be able to:

  1. Explore a wide range of relevant theatre/drama, education, social and cultural theories.
  2. Acquire the knowledge and develop the skills to lead theatre games and exercises.
  3. Develop strong session planning, project devising, role-playing, play-building, directing and facilitation skills.
  4. Participate in a theatre-in-education, youth theatre or other community-based theatre project.
  5. Research, create and implement an original piece of applied theatre work in, for, or with a specific community.
  6. Become well-versed in the principles and processes of youth development.
  7. Understand the challenges and dynamics of arts partnerships and community interventions.
  8. Learn to analyze and evaluate their own work and the work of others.
  9. Begin to define an explicit, coherent pedagogical stance to inform their emergent applied theatre practices.
  10. Understand and practice research methods and processes that will enable them to transfer the learned principles and skills to a wide variety of associated fields.

The Program

The Master’s Degree in Applied Theatre (M.A.), the first program of its kind in the United States, is a sequential, ensemble-based program for students interested in the use of theatre to address social and educational issues in a wide range of settings. The program stresses the unity of theory and practice, and is linked to the professional applied theatre work of the renowned CUNY Creative Arts Team (http://www.creativeartsteam.org/).

Applied theatre is a specialized field that uses theatre as a medium for education and social development. It involves the use of theatre and drama in a wide variety of non-traditional contexts and venues - in teaching, the justice system, healthcare, the political arena, community development, museums, social service agencies, and business and industry.

The goal of the program is to educate scholar-practitioners to become future leaders in the field of applied theatre. Students explore key theories in the fields of theatre, education, youth development, and community building, and acquire the skills and strategies necessary for creating and implementing the work.

Admission Criteria

In addition to the admission criteria for graduate degree programs, a background in appropriate theatre studies will be an advantage but not necessarily essential. Theatre experience, formal or informal, is expected.

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